Multiple Defendants Sentenced for Drug Trafficking and Violent Crimes

OXFORD – Jackie Lee Brooks, 54, of Ashland MS, the leader of a multi-defendant conspiracy, was sentenced to 240 months in federal prison resulting from his role in a methamphetamine (ice) distribution conspiracy in the Northern District of Mississippi by Chief Judge Sharion Aycock at the United States District Court in Aberdeen Wednesday morning. He was ordered to forfeit $42,705 dollars in drug trafficking proceeds, 11 firearms and assorted ammunitions, and approximately 200 acres of property in Mississippi and Tennessee. Brooks previously pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, firearms, and money laundering offenses in United States District Court in April, 2018.

The investigation and prosecution of this trans-national drug trafficking organization responsible for distributing hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine from Mexico through Southern California to North Mississippi is the result of a joint investigation between the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, North Mississippi Narcotics Unit, Tippah County Sheriff’s Department, Alcorn County Sheriff’s Department and the United States Attorney’s Office. This joint investigation involved numerous search warrants, arrests, and convictions resulting in the seizure of firearms, drugs and property. In all, seven defendants have been sentenced in federal court for their roles in the drug trafficking conspiracy with one remaining defendant to be sentenced.

William C. Lamar, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Mississippi, Joseph Frank, Resident Agent in Charge of the Oxford Office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Warner Benson, Resident Agent in Charge of the Oxford Office of the DEA, and Phillip Robertson, Major, Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics made the announcement.

“We are making and keeping our neighborhoods safe through joint and collaborative efforts like this one with our federal, state and local law enforcement under the umbrellas of our Project Safe Neighborhoods Initiative and the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. Working together is a force multiplier and by working together there’s no limit to what we have, can and will accomplish,” said U.S. Attorney William C. Lamar.

These charges were the result of an investigation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), a federal multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that provides supplemental funding to federal and state agencies involved in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of major drug trafficking organizations pursuant to the Project Safe Neighborhood anti-violent crime initiative. Several agencies were crucial to this investigation, including the DEA, ATF, the U.S. Marshals Service, Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, North East Mississippi Narcotics Unit, Mississippi Highway Patrol, Tippah County Sheriff’s Office, Alcorn County Sheriff’s Office and the Mississippi National Guard Counter-Drug Unit.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Chad M. Doleac and Sam Wright.